Inspiration for Leaders

Friday, March 13, 2009

Heidi has some very practical uses of wikis in her classroom. I’m assuming everyone reading this blog understands the functionality of the wiki so I will jump to the important points.

Heidi teaches 9th grade Living Science and an Honors Marine Biology course for seniors. She purposes her wiki for the level she is teaching to.

I was impressed with Heidi's knowledge of learning styles. She has every student take a learning style quiz at the beginning of the year and the students reference their learning styles throughout the year (wow - sounds so simple, why didn't I think of that?).

How does she use the wiki in 9th Grade Regents Course?Students have to create review questions and answer the questions on the wiki.. Students then use this as a learning tool and some use it as a review when studying for a test.

Throughout the year Heidi also has students, in groups, post science information/resources related to their learning styles. Students must add a digital resource; a description and what learning style this resource will meet. Heidi then uses the resources throughout her lessons that year and she tags them and adds them to delicious. As a teacher she now has 20+ students times 3 periods combing the Internet to find the best resources on a variety of topics in Science. She has the learners mining the Internet while simultaneously building her own database of resources to use in subsequent years. I couldn’t’ think of a better use of instruction.

This is Heidi’s second year using the wiki in her classroom. Last year she started it mid-year. This school year she implemented the wiki in September. She announced that she saw a 10% increase in her mid-term exams from last year. She believes it is because of the 100% participation she receives through the wiki.

12th Grade Science – HonorsStudents select an environment to study. They are responsible for both individual and cooperative grades. She has a 5-page rubric (see resource links below) that she has created to structure the project so effective learning happens.

As students work on experiments she embeds data sheets into her wiki from Google spreadsheets so students can see the results of their data collected. Students get to see in real time the results of their experiments – sometimes without even being in the classroom.

She uses the historic data in wikis to see who is working when and to measure how much each team member has contributed to the project . She then uses the wiki history against their individual grade.

We should have given Heidi a 90-minute session; she had so much information to share. I felt while watching her that time was not on her side – probably why she embraces technology – she has so much to cover and assess that learning has to happen outside her classroom.

I measure a good teacher by a very simple filter – would I want this teacher to teach my own kids? The answer is an affirmative YES! She knows her content, she understands this generation and she embodies constructive learning. I think many of her students must walk out of her classroom and want to be biologists, researchers or scientists but most importantly they are excited about learning. Who knows, she may have taught the next “Google” creator or the next teacher but most importantly she has taught them to think, cooperate, share and manage their own time online. Kudos to Heidi!

So go visit her site SOON! She will only have the guest account access for a short period of time. And while you are there let us know what you found valuable and share with us how you are using wikis in your school. Remember the best teachers are thieves and in this era of social networking - thieves share their secrets!

As part of the Model Schools offers, we help educators learn the power of wikis, web pages and other digital media. Peter LaMoreaux of Brewster presented at Tech Expo today with several exemplars of student work. Their projects were both informative and engaging. Peter spoke about putting a “digital spin” on some classic student projects. A primary example is a student Science Fair. Picture a traditional Science Fair. Lots of tri-fold poster boards with pictures glued to the surface. Perhaps the students use different size and color fonts for effect…now head up to Brewster. Their Science Fair includes videos, web pages and wiki spaces that are used to demonstrate knowledge of the concepts being explored. Students are not required to utilize technology but they are given the opportunity to express their learning in a way they deem appropriate. The student projects are then posted to a Science Fair website for peer review and review by other Science teachers and administrators in the district. The audience is more far reaching than people who walk around the gym looking at the displays. Peter also utilizes digital publishing opportunities for basic classroom assignments. A significant part of the Physics curriculum focuses on completion of labs. In his class, students are not limited to submitting a hand written lab. They can complete the lab and submit it as a wiki, web page, video or other digital media they are comfortable with. Part of his success with digital expression is the willingness of the district to keep things open; to let the student’s publish their work for the larger audience to see. Participants of the session raised concerns of privacy and protection of the students. Peter’s response was that, if you teach the students responsible use of the tools, they wouldn’t abuse them. He has been working with students in the digital publishing world since 1999 and has not had any problems yet. Kudos to Peter and his district for keeping an open mind and an open ability for students to reach out and share their work. Before posting this blog, I attended Marco Torres’ keynote. His story was the same and his outreach was to all educators. Empower the kids, provide them with the tools and learn to deal with those in your district who say “No Way”, Yes But” and let’s focus on the “Yes Ands”.

I’ve never considered myself a ‘creative’ person by nature. I believed that creativity equaled art in the traditional sense. I didn’t like to paint, draw or sculpt. I took lots of photographs, but mostly for the purpose of recording events.In recent years I’ve found my creative side by creating digital videos. These videos typically honor a person or an event – retirement, special birthday, memorial. As I experience my final projects with others, I am always amazed at the emotions that my movie evokes and realize that it is true art. To some degree I was rearranging reality and telling a story.In Diane Nerwen’s presentation about Digital Video Across the Curriculum, she spoke about Daniel Pink and his book "A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future." Mr. Pink believes that the era of the ‘left brain’ dominance is giving way to ‘right brain’ qualities – inventiveness, empathy and meaning-predominate. As Ms. Nerwen detailed the process the students go through to complete their projects, I realized how much of that process lends itself to the ‘left brain’. In particular, the planning process includes storyboarding and organizing shot lists. Sounds like a logical, sequential, analytical – left-brain – process. Students have to use both sides of their brains to complete these projects or rely on a group member to balance out each side of the collective ‘brain’. Throughout her presentation, Ms. Nerwen shared examples of many different types of videos that her students create (poetry, music videos, documentaries, public service announcements, parodies). The preparation and planning phase was key to a successful video. For example, if you are going to make a PSA about gun violence, do you want to show guns? The discussions that follow go much beyond making a ‘cool’ video with the latest software. The products were phenomenal and the processes evident.Do you need to be ‘right brain’ dominant to rule the future? I believe we ‘left-brainers’ still have a place!

Enter Rosa, collaborating with Marco via live audio feed from California. Rosa a former student shared the presentation throughout the beginning of the presentation using a shared computer screen and audio. One to one collaboration and one to one professional development are effective and easily accomplished today.

Marco suggests that for him the digital storytelling process is about teaching kids to be effective communicators – technology is not the goal. Digital story telling is about writing through the framework of a story. Telling stories intrigues and engages kids – writing is part of the process not the end goal.

When Torres works on storytelling through the creation of movies, the first step is to craft a story. Kids need to think thematically and they use Inspiration software to organize and plan around thematic writing. Rosa takes control and demonstrates how she used an inspiration diagram a story on the idea of “stars”, people that are considered stars, to map out the movie making process. Using the inspiration mind mapping process allows students to focus on elements of the “story” that are interesting not simply talking heads. It also provides a place to map other roles that are necessary to the movie making process such as camera, sound etc. It also allows teachers to differentiate content and roles based on the story elements and strands based on their readiness and interest levels.

Photography and films have been a tool for liberation for decades. At the onset of the first proliferation of the color TV also was the Vietnam war. The color red had new meaning through the lens of a war, red…blood…emotion. Think of the civil rights movement and the images that come to mind. If we can capture that much emotion and memory via still images imagine what we can do with digital video.

Consider this – do kids love challenges? Look at your own behavior to find the answer. We love Iron Chef because we want to see how the overcome the challenges of the ingredients they are provided, make something from eel tails. We love “Myth Busters” because they are always finding ways to challenge themselves.

“Get kids to come back tomorrow by infecting them with curiosity today.”

This is my first time hearing Marcos – and in the first 5 minutes I’m enamored by his warmth and passion for life and what he does. Currently he is sharing with us a video of his children going to bed and as I look around the conference hall I see smiles as we all in the audience are reminded of why we do what we do. He does what he does so that they (students) come back tomorrow. “Kids love to learn, but school gets in the way-sometimes.”

He encourages teachers to start with “something” in technology and go with it. He related that George Lucas does not really use technology in fact he doesn’t email.

Problems with Digital Storytelling in Schools – they spend a lot of time editing video or they spend a great deal of time writing and little on the video end. Schools need to work on collaborating and integrating these programs more effectively.

4 P’s of Storytelling• Plan – use mind maps, drawings, writing.; sometimes not digital. Students spend a majority of time in this part of storytelling.. Uses inspiration to brainstorm, categorize and organize the content and he believes this is the fundamental building block of movie making. Visually the students begin to see how they would write their story, song, poem,video, etc. They know how many sections, paragraphs, verses to produce and b/c the technology allows us to drag and drop students can then quantify the most important to least important.• Produce – use something as simple as Power Point to movie making• Present – to the class, the school, district, community possibly the world• Pheedback

Have students write about what they are interested in. It makes the video capturing, editing that much more essential and real.

My reflection on Marcos – he inspires, he promotes, he is humble and he believes education is THE most important profession. He wants to be part of the change and he wants to move students toward a better tomorrow. So my questions to you – teachers, building administrators, superintendents, directors of technology, teachers – what is your story? How are you going to write and digitize your BOLD statement? Can these stories start with us first?

The rollout of these sturdy, laptop devices took off when the 5th grade students became the teachers. In putting the technology directly in their hands first, the hesitation teachers sometimes experience with technology vanished. It was a brilliant move to get teachers on board. The 5th grade students became problem solvers, both boys and girls, and were willingly invested in the process, when they realized they were in charge.

Gerald Ardito (Croton Harmon) met with technology team 3-4 times, helping them unbox, take the machines apart and put them back together. Students sitting around a conference table upgraded and made road-ready about 140 machines in a 2 hour period.

The teachers involved in this project learned a lot by watching kids adopt them, from the initial rollout, where the first order of business was to have each student pick the one they wanted. The XO devices seem to facilitate ad hoc networks which mirror how middle schoolers learn in the spirit of cooperative learning. The devices are friendly to free and open source software. According to Gerald, the kids treat them like their own personal cell phones and iPods - the device becomes truly “theirs.”

When first exploring the device, all the boys seem to find the games, web browser, Scratch and other applications; while the girls found how to connect machines together (form a network, in a technical and human sense), and chat. An interesting observation was the revealing of distinct modes of approaching technology, if you devote enough time for it to play out. According to the participating staff, this project helped to redefine intelligence – some students with significant learning problems have come into their own through their access to the device.

Lesson learned – don’t fight the ripple effect of students taking off with something. It’s much better and ultimately less stressful to “lighten up” and embrace an initial level of chaos and disruption. Plan for some chaos of having to keep up with different paces, but reap the benefits of authentic student ownership of the process.

So how does the 21st Century student succeed in today’s world? It is by no accident that the presenters started with a self-created video of their students sharing what the world will look like when they graduate. It had a-Youtube- Edutube like feeling- sharing while students lifted up papers sharing their thoughts about how they- communicate; mainly digital -text, email, web. The students also expressed their concerne with how they might be able to survive in this digital world with the every-growing number of people in India, China & Japan who in their minds seem to be doing better academically. How will they compete in this global world?

How are educators across the globe dealing with this issue of developing problem solvers and entrepreneurs for our 21 Century? Most of us teaching are digital immigrants – as quoted by Robert Murdoch, those of us over 30 , “ …may never fully understand this technology but may assimilate.”

Teachers need to make the classroom active not passive; the guide on the side. Teachers need a current website that goes beyond homework. Teachers need to decide how to use iPods, YouTube, blogs, wikis, podcasts, texting.

How do teachers begin to develop a more technically literate student that can compete with the global world?

Web Siteswww.newspaper.com - a website that gathers papers from around the world. She demonstrated how studying the recent Australian fire outbreak could be reviewed from an Australian resource and an American resource. Is there a different perspective from where the information is written?

CNN Student News – from iTunes, they discuss current news both domestically and internationally. This video podcast is engaging and valuable.

iGoogle – use iGoogle as a jumping point for dragging gadgets that relate to education. For example she used Online English Grammar, Word of the Day, Quote of the Day, History for are sites that will feed iGoolge daily.

iPod technology – how could you create homework assignments that engage and further educate our students beyond the “direct instruction” within the classroom.? They shared a site on NPR –that provides series of podcasts that can be shared with students to download. Creation of podcasts enable students to not only work on writing skills but also on their theatrical performance skills – hopefully tapping into their creative intelligence.

Twitter – social networking site that enables students to share a status update. Where are you and what you are doing – The end user controls who can see their twitter page. Could teachers have students answer a “Do Now” via the cell phone to hopefully get greater participation and potentially hear from students that may be afraid to voice their opinion. Students in the high school and middle school would benefit greatly from this because so many have cell phones. My question to all of you – how many of your schools allow students to access their phones?

As we look at all of these technologies it is very exciting and encourages me to continue searching for appropriate uses of these tools for instructional means. I am curious about how you are using these tools in your classroom. If you are not using them - tell us which one tool you would be interested integrating!

On January 30, 2008, a 9 year old earned more fame than most of us will ever receive in our lifetimes. He wasn’t on the news, or in a newspaper article. In Sarah’s keynote she showed a YouTube video, “David after the Dentist” which chronicles in about a minute and a half this 9 year old’s odyssey through anesthesia and laughing gas after oral surgery. The video had the group in stitches (no pun intended) because of it’s wonderful spontanaeity and David became an instant star :14 million views since January 30. A few days later, David became a byline – the parody videos started, first with a rap version, then a feline version, then starring Darth Vader, then with a dramatic rendition of an adult David the divorcee.

Sarah introduced a term in order to clarify this phenomena – the “prosumer”; one who is both a producer and a consumer; one who makes content for the sake of it, without being on a payroll; one who wants to be part of a movement (in this case the “David” movement.) What else is YouTube about if not that – a self generating, spontaneous, playpen where people create without being told to, without outside influence, without being told to.

Speaking of playing, Sarah’s background has a lot to do with games. She grew up playing Galaga. Her doctoral research is on the rhetoric of virtual worlds: how people communicate in these virtual spaces. And she knows about playing and how game elements can instruct the formal business of school to simulate a more interactive reality. Take the lioness raising cubs, she says – she doesn’t whip out a chalkbord to identify the prey. She lets them wrestle, bite, yelp and experiment. And they learn by experimenting and testing things out, much like players do in games, where they “die” and start over, and over, and over. Games use failure for learning. When you lose, you start over and try again rather than being kicked out or put on a SINI list. How pervasive is gaming? According to Pew, 97% of US kids (12-17) play video games. That means there are 4 gamers for every 1 golfer in US.

The “school” , as an institution, has become “the machine” – a factory where bells dictate schedules instead of choices.

Sarah praised elements of games that the machine can learn from : games offer clear rewards and motivation, games are dialogic and conversational, games allow you to develop scaffolded skills and apply them immediately.

She also gave us permission to throw out the door, once and for all, the restrictions of diving the world into “digital natives and digital immigrants”. We all have the opportunity to Google something, to find instant satisfaction to intellectual curiosiry.

So, the way school is done is the real disruption, not the students, not the technology, not the teachers, not the administrators. The tension lies in strengthening active learning in a hypermediated culture. It’s about blowing the walls off the doors in classrooms and opening up channels of information.